NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (or Nights: Journey of Dreams) is a Wii-exclusive action video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game is a sequel to NiGHTS into Dreams for the Sega Saturn.
The game follows the story of William Taylor and Helen Cartwright from the city of Bellbridge and also continues following the story of NiGHTS, a Nightmaren who was created with the purpose to do evil, but decided to rebel against it, and now tries to protect the world of dreams from the god of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked.
Contents
Story
Journey of Dreams' main cast; from left to right: William Taylor, NiGHTS and Helen Cartwright.
William "Will" "Taylor is a young boy who doesn't have many friends and he enjoys playing soccer and spending time with his father. Will was practicing for a soccer game when one day, his father had to leave him due to his work, making Will feel very lonely. Helen Cartwright is a young violinist, who used to be really close to her mother. However, as Helen grew up, she started spending more time with her friends, making her mother sad and Helen is feeling very guilty about it. Helen and her mother are also praticing for a violion's concert. However, Helen has been skipping training to spend more time with her friends.
Will surronded by Nightmarens disguised as soccer players.
One night, both Will and Helen are having nightmares about their issues, when suddently, monsters appear and start chasing them. The children run from them through a dark place until they see a light that banishes the nightmares and transports them to the Night Dimension.
NiGHTS and Owl at the Dream Gate.
At the Dream Gate, Owl greets and introduces the Night Dimension to them. Eventually, Will and Helen meet NiGHTS, who asks them if they'd like to fly around to have fun by dualizing with them. The children give a try and after flying for a while, NiGHTS, Owl and the children are surprised by doors to Nightopia appearing at the Dream Gate, which were created by the visitors red Ideya.
NiGHTS is excited to explore the new worlds, but is followed by Reala, who imprisons NiGHTS in a NiGHTS Capture as a punishment for their rebellion. However, thanks to the visitors' red Ideya, NiGHTS can be freed from their prison for a limited time by making the visitors merge with them.
After destroying the NiGHTS Captures and facing off some of Wizeman's minions, Will and Helen learn that they have lost four Ideyas on their way to the Night Dimension and start a quest with NiGHTS, to recover them. According to Owl, once the children retrive them all, peace will be restored in Nightopia and their hearts will win over the Nightmarens.
NiGHTS facing off Bomamba.
As they adventure thoughout the dream worlds, NiGHTS and the visitors battle vicious 2nd Level Nightmarens and even Reala himself on an occasion, regaining each child's ideya in the process. Will and Helen are also transported to each others dream during their quest and they befriend each other.
Once they recover three out of four Ideyas, Wizeman runs out of patience and decides to punish NiGHTS by himself. Wizeman attacks NiGHTS and Helen at the Dream Gate and drags both into the Dark Ocean, promising to reset NiGHTS by replacing their mind and soul with a more obedient one. But before that happens, he leaves NiGHTS chained at Bellbridge clock tower for unknown reasons.
Will and Helen are so determined to save NiGHTS, that their Ideya of courage grants them with the power of flight and together, the visitors find NiGHTS at the top of the Bellbridge tower and save them in time before Wizeman resets NiGHTS. As the trio is reunited, NiGHTS, Will and Helen, merge together into two NiGHTS and to fight against Wizeman. After being defeated, Wizeman turns into a purple orb, which is slowly disappearing. Before fading away entirely, Wizeman reveals that he will always exists as long as evil still lurks within the hearts of humans. Shortly after, Will and Helen wake up.
In Will story, he wakes up determined to win the soccer game. The scene changes to a large stadium filled with people cheering. The monitor shows the scores between the two teams, showing that it is so far a tie. The scene switches to Will running on the field with red knee-high socks and black soccer shoes. A team member passes the ball to him, and once Will catches it with his feet, he sees two members of the other team in front of him. Will notices that his other team members are blocked by the other team, and his eyes close.
Will wins the game for his team.
The scene switches to Will in his soccer uniform at a cliff with his soccer ball, his hands glowing red. Light hits him, and the scene returns to the real world. Will notices his father cheering for him in the stadium, nods his head and runs through the other team, kicking the ball in the same way he did in the intro. When he is kicking the ball through, in a turning position it changes to him in his normal outfit turning and flying in Bellbridge, flying towards the moon. The scene lights back to him kicking the ball into the goal. People cheer while his father gives him a well-done pose. Will does a pose of satisfaction of the win, and his friends jump all over him in hugs. The scene shines up to the sun.
Helen and her mother at the concert.
In Helen's story, she wakes up determined to play with her mother in the concert. The scene changes to the outside of a large building in the city, where Helen's mother is awaiting her. Helen comes rushing up the steps to her, in a different outfit, panting and carrying her violin case. Her mother says her name happily in relief, and Helen stands up and pulls her ponytail down, swinging her hair slightly and smiles then winks. The scene changes to a concert hall with a crowd of people in the audience. Helen and her mother play with the background piano music, moving side by side and playing without hesitation. Helen feels herself enjoying the recital, and as she slightly swings around, she changes back into her normal outfit flying in Bellbridge towards the moon with her eyes closed. As the recital ends, the audience claps loudly, and Helen and her mother bow. Helen smiles and puts her arm around her mother's and leans on her gently to her mother's surprise. Helen's mother then looks up to the crowd and puts her arm on her daughter's hand.
Secret Ending
In the Secret Endings, the final Ideya of Hope appears on the Dream Gate's staircase. But the moment NiGHTS is about to get it, they are surprised by Wizeman, who knocks NiGHTS out and drags them down with the Yellow Ideya. Just like in the normal ending, Wizeman promises to reset NiGHTS, but once again, all he does is leaving NiGHTS chained at the Bellbridge clock tower and the two Visitors save NiGHTS before Wizeman resets them.
NiGHTS fading away.
In this ending however, the trio is surprised by Reala, and so NiGHTS must battle him a final time to reach Wizeman. As darkness envelopes Bellbridge, the three Dualize and face Wizeman the Wicked together. But in this ending, Wizeman reveals that if NiGHTS destroys him, all of his creations will be destroyed as well, including NiGHTS themself. The children can't bear to lose NiGHTS but are reassured of their own strength and free will, so they work together to defeat him. After NiGHTS, Will, and Helen defeat Wizeman, NIGHTS delivers a final bow before fading away into white light.
The two children wake up crying and thanking NiGHTS, then scenes of Will's soccer game and Helen's violin concert repeat. In the secret ending however, there is an extra cutscene showing what happens after these scenes. In Helen's case, she alone with her mother on the outside of the now empty concert's theater and she starts playing Dreams Dreams on the violin. Meanwhile, Will is going back home with his father and friends. Will was kicking a soccer ball during his walk, when he hits the ball and it falls down some stairs, while Will runs after it. Stopping to pick it up, he hears Helen playing and begins to follow the music. A blackout suddenly happens, and Helen screams, closing her eyes and curling into a ball. When the lights come back on and she opens her eyes, Will is standing there with his hand out. Helen reaches out to take it, and it begins to snow. The two laughs and the screen fades out.
Later that night, while the two children are asleep. The camera flies to the top of Bellbridge spire, where NiGHTS is seen playing their invisible flute, revealing that they somehow survived.
Gameplay
Much like the first game, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has a total of seven level, with each visitor having three unique ones and both sharing the last one, Bellbridge. At the beginning of the game, the player selects a visitor who is sent to the Dream Gate, where they must finish the tutorial in order to unlock the first dream worlds, Pure Valley for Will and Aqua Garden for Helen. The other levels are unlocked by beating their respective previous levels.
NiGHTS chasing a Goodle.
When a player first enters a new world, they are automatically given the world's first and main mission, the chase mission, where Reala imprisons NiGHTS inside a golden aquarium-like cage called NiGHTS Capture and leaves. To destroy the cages, it's necessary to collect its keys which Reala left with three Goodles, grinning imp-like Nightmarens that ride colorfu bird-like nightmarens. Each Goodle keeps a capsule key. In order to complete the mission, the player must make the visitors dualize (fuse) with NiGHTS to release them. The player will then have a limited time to chase the Goodles, one by one, each in a different lap, and bring the keys to the capture back so it can be destroyed. If the time runs out, it is instantly game over. Once all three keys are recovered, Wizeman will send a boss to fight NiGHTS.
Before merging with NiGHTS though, the player can also explore the world with the visitors, albeit with only a limited amount of time, as Awakers will eventually start spawning out of nowhere and chase them. The Awakers will try to stick themselves on a visitor and if three of them succeed, they will wake the visitor up, causing a Night Over. Once the Awakers start spawning, the only way to make them disappear is by dualizing with NiGHTS. The visitors can also protect themselves from the the Awakers by tossing blue chips at them, but they will eventually start spawning faster until they become unavoidable. A small timer on the bottom-right corner of the screen shows the player how much time is left before the Awakers begin to to appear. The player can delay the Awakers by collecting Time Chips, floating clock items that can rewind this timer. Time Chips can be found throughout the levels and sometimes inside treasure chests.
After successfully completing this mission, more side missions, which vary depending on the level, are unlocked. With the exception of Bellbridge, each dream world has a total of five missions and the player must complete all of them in order to unlock more dream worlds.
Persona Masks
William unlocking the Dragon Persona.
A brand new feature in this game are the Persona Masks, unlockable items which transform NiGHTS and give them new abilities. The game has a total of three unlockable personas, the Dolphin, the Rocket and the Dragon masks, each being unlocked after finishing all five missions of a dream world.
Dream Drops
The Dream Drops are a new collectable in this game, a mysterious water drop which can be found in the Dream Gate and all of the levels. When one is found, the dream drop is sent to the Dream Gate fountain, which displays the current number of dream drops collected. When all 60 are collected, the water in the fountain turns multi-color, and if Will or Helen jump into it, they will turn into Elliot and Claris, respectively.
Nightopians A-Life
See main Article: Nightopians
The Nightopians Artificial Life (A-Life) feature returns in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Much like in the previous game, Journey of Dreams keeps track of the moods of the Nightopians. The player can change the Nightopians mood by making them happy, sad, scared or angry, depending on how NiGHTS treats them. It is also possible to once again, create the hybrid being Mepians as well as give birth to the rare King Pian.
Two Nightopians.
This game also has a brand new feature called My Dream (Also known as Nightopian Garden), which is a special location for players to take care of the Nightopians. In order to transport the Nightopians and Mepians to the Nightopian Garden, NiGHTS must make a paraloop around the Nightopians.
The weather information received from the Wii Weather Channel will also influence the weather in My Dream and there will also be special content made available during special days, such as the holiday season.
Multiplayer Mode
NiGHTS and Reala in Multiplayer mode.
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has two multiplayer modes where the first player controls NiGHTS and the second player controls Reala; the Battle Mode and the Speed Mode. In the Battle Mode, the player must grab a floating ball object and shoot at the opponent. The player who hits the opponent three times wins. In the Speed Mode, the players compete against each other in a race. The player who finishes first wins. Multiplayer mode can be played with nearby friend on the same console, online with a friend or online with a random person.
Online Scoreboard
The game would keep track of high-scores in the single-player levels and publish them via an online scoreboard. When the player selected one of the two stories, the game would automatically update their scores and show their online rank. Unfortunately, this, along with all other online features are no longer available, since Nintendo shut off internet support for most Wii and Nintendo DSi games and apps on June 28th, 2013.
Voice Actors/Actresses
Julissa Aguirre, the voice of NiGHTS.
- Julissa Aguirre - NiGHTS
- Riley O'Flynn - William Taylor
- Victoria Ashby - Helen Cartwright
- Casey Robertson - Reala
- Jeff Kramer - Owl, Will's Father
- Roger L. Jackson - Wizeman the Wicked
- Michele Johnston - Helen's Mother
- Tomoko Sasaki - Nightopians[1] (uncredited)
Development
Takashi Iizuka first started working on NiGHTS 2 in November 2005, after Shadow the Hedgehog was shipped. In May 2006 the actual development started.
Air Nights
Demand for a sequel to NiGHTS into Dreams... has been strong for many years. A game with the working title "Air Nights" was in development to use a tilt sensor in the Saturn analog pad, and development later moved to the Sega Dreamcast for a time, but eventually the project was discontinued and ended up being a mere prototype for the motion-sensing technology that was later used in Sonic Team's Samba De Amigo.
“I know a lot of people love it and want us to make a sequel, but for us, it's a really important game. Like the way Spielberg likes E.T. so much he won't remake it, I don't want to make other NiGHTS."
In an interview in the November 2003 edition of Edge, he was asked whether he would like to develop another Nights game:
“I see Nights as a license. When dealing with such a license from the past it is quite a lot of work, but I would like to use Nights to reinforce Sega's identity, yes.”
In April 2006 the Japanese game magazine Famitsu published a rumor implying that a Nights sequel was in development for the Wii. Rumors regarding a Wii version continued to appear during 2006.
Spring 2007 Confirmation
In March 2007, Sega.com ran a poll titled "Which Sega game/character would you like to see return?" featuring Nights as one of the options (along with Streets of Rage, Samba de Amigo, Virtua Cop and Flicky).
Around the same time as the poll, Official Nintendo Magazine stated that an upcoming game for the Wii would be revealed in its May 2007 issue. It printed the words "a classic game makes a long-overdue return" underneath an image of a constellation which accurately follows the outline of the Nights logo. This caused further speculation on the future of the franchise and, due to the issue's proximity to April Fools' Day, the validity of the report. Official Nintendo Magazine stated that the teaser was valid, but also made clear they never stated it was a Nights sequel.
On the cover of the April 2007 issue of Swedish magazine Gamereactor, a mildly redesigned Nights is shown, along with the text "Sega's dream-demon returns." The cover has since been replaced with an outline of Nights, with Gamereactor commenting that Sega had contacted them about it. However, the original cover has spread onto the internet.
In the April issue of the Portuguese magazine Maxi Consolas, the first images of the game were published, finally confirming the existence of a new Nights game for the Wii. Scans of the article were posted onto Jeux-France. The article reports that Sega will officially announce the game in early April.
In April 2007, Famitsu announced the name NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams.
Reception
Overall reviews have been mixed, averaging at around 74%. Nintendo Power, reviewing the game in their January 2008 issue, gave the game a 9 out of 10, saying "Director Takashi Iizuka and his team have hit one out of the park, delivering a follow-up in every way worthy of its legendary predecessor. Electronic Gaming Monthly also reviewed the game in their January 2008 issue, giving the game a 7.0, 7.5, and 7.0, averaging out to a score of 7.2/10. They praised the game for its appealing art style, pleasant soundtrack, and its faithfulness to the original game, but criticized it for the 3D platforming segments, confusing boss battles, and saying the Wii remote controls don't work nearly as well as the standard control scheme. IGN scored the game a 6.5/10, saying it was only for die-hard fans of the original. GameSpot scored the game a 7.5/10, and Game Zone gave it 8/10. Famitsu gave the game an overall score of 29 out of 40, praising it for its heartwarming story and good replay value, but criticizing sometimes bothersome controls.[2]
Trivia
- In Sonic Unleashed, Doctor Eggman has a copy of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams hidden inside his eggmobile.[3]
- NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is one of the few Sega games which doesn't have a Japanese dub. Instead, the game only has Japanese subtitles.
- A hacker found almost all of the NiGHTS into Dreams tracks in the game files, which were never used in the game, including all of the levels and bosses themes and even the famous NiGHTS into Dreams deleted theme "Know Thyself", which was going to be the boss battle theme for the famous deleted NiGHTS into Dreams boss Selph. [4]
- Considering all of the other bosses themes were found in the files, it should be noted that Selph was most likely not planned to appear in the game.
- This game's characters have been given British accents to fit the style of the game.
External Links
- NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams at Wikipedia
- NiGHTS Journey of Dreams Official Japanese Site (Warning: Flash Required)
See also
Gallery
Videos
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